Numerous luminaires provided with discharge lamps are regularly used for illuminating exhibition stalls, exhibition areas, scenes for films etc. Frame-like stands are often used for this purpose on which the luminaires are mounted and connected to a connecting cable. The connecting cable connects the luminaires to an associated electronic ballast. Owing to the high number of luminaires which are often used, the electronic ballasts are often inserted in large numbers in standard withdrawable part housings. In order to reduce the number of cables, which are sometimes routed over a relatively long distance, the connecting lines of the electronic ballasts are increasingly connected to a single, multicore cable, which is used to largely bridge the distance between the electronic ballasts and the luminaires. A distribution board is fitted at the luminaire end of the multicore cable, and the individual luminaires can then be connected to this distribution board.
In order to perform the respective illumination tasks, luminaires having different power ratings are generally used. It is known to provide the luminaires having different power ratings with different plugs in order to prevent, for example, a luminaire having a lower power rating being connected to an electronic ballast having a higher output power rating or vice versa, which could result in damage to the discharge lamp of the luminaire or to the electronic ballast. However, one disadvantage of this is the fact that the distribution board which is connected to the multicore cable needs to be equipped with mating plugs which are correspondingly mechanically coded so that the distribution board needs to be specially designed for the respective illumination task. This is inconvenient and requires, for example, a relatively large amount of modification work if it is established when the illumination system is set up that at one or more points a luminaire having a prescribed power rating needs to be replaced by a luminaire having a different power rating.